Van Miller named Entrepreneur of the Year

You can add 'Entrepreneur of the Year' to a long list of honors bestowed upon VGM Group, Inc. Founder and CEO, Van Miller.

Upper Midwest EY, Ernst & Young, tabbed Van Miller as one of its eight Upper Midwest Entrepreneurs of the Year at its annual awards ceremonies Wednesday night in Minneapolis. The award qualifies Miller for the Ernst & Young National awards program later this year.

Jim Walsh, President of the VGM Group, says, “Van well deserves this recognition. He thinks of those who work for his company first, and his community second. His consummate skill in managing talent and making hard decisions is evident to all who know him.”

Van Miller founded VGM & Associates in Waterloo in September of 1986. The company began as a new, national buying entity for independent medical equipment providers and quickly grew into one of the nation's top home medical equipment industry players.

VGM has grown to include for than twenty different units, mostly still related to the home medical equipment industry, but also expanding to include buying groups of high tech rehabilitation, respiratory providers and prosthetic practitioners.

VGM has also ventured into the golf and private club industry, restaurant chains and even includes HME providers in Canada, VGM now has 630 employees.

Miller did not attend the Wednesday night awards ceremony in Minneapolis. He was in Waterloo for his company's annual Heartland Conference. He said simply, “I owe it all to the associates.”

VGM implemented a Employee Stock Ownership program in 2005 and by June of 2008, VGM was 100-per cent employee owned.

Among his previous awards, HomeCare Magazine named Van Miller one of the 'Top 10 Most Influential People in the HME Industry.' The magazine also honored Miller as its HomeCaring Award, viewed as the industry's equivalent of a lifetime achievement award.